BMA calls for greater clarity for GPs in GMC ‘personal beliefs’ guidance
The BMA has called for greater clarity in GMC guidance for GPs on expressing their personal beliefs while practising.
The union said draft updated guidance ‘ambiguously’ addresses restrictions on when doctors cannot practise in line with their beliefs and values.
The union has issued its response to an ongoing GMC consultation on amending Personal beliefs and medical practice guidance.
Paragraph 10 of the draft guidance states: ‘Medical professionals may practise in line with their beliefs and values, provided they:
- Follow the law and our guidance on professional standards, which set out the standards of care and professional behaviour expected of all medical professionals registered with us;
- Make sure this does not act as a barrier to patients accessing appropriate care;
- Don’t treat patients unfairly or cause them distress.’
And paragraph 17 adds: ‘During a consultation, you should keep the discussion relevant to the patient’s care and treatment… If a patient asks you about your personal beliefs, you must be careful not to breach the professional boundary that exists between you… You must not impose your beliefs and values on patients, or cause distress by the inappropriate or insensitive expression of them.’
But the BMA said: ‘Paragraphs 10 and 17 of the draft guidance describe restrictions on when a doctor can’t practise in line with their beliefs and values. Looking at the restrictions, these present somewhat ambiguously.
‘This would need supporting materials to explain how these restrictions would apply in practice. For example, providing specific examples of when it is and is not acceptable to talk to a patient about faith.’
It follows previous fitness-to-practise cases where the extent to which GPs can express their personal beliefs has been scrutinised.
In 2023, the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) gave a GP a warning after he talked about his own faith and clasped his hands in prayer during a consultation with a 19-year-old patient battling mental health problems.
The BMA also said the way the GMC’s consultation is structured overly simplifies some issues by including multiple issues in one answer.
Responding to a consultation question asking about the impact of the updates ‘on patients and the professionals we regulate who share protected characteristics’, the BMA said this ‘clumps all the protected characteristics together’ despite each characteristic having ‘its own challenges’.
The BMA said: For example, for one cohort of doctors, our survey reports show that clearly identifying patient requests as being abusive and discriminatory would be beneficial for doctors from ethnic minority groups who have historically faced discrimination from patients who state their beliefs would not allow them to be treated by doctors in certain ethnic groups.
‘However, for another cohort of doctors, considering the current legislative framework in the UK on the topics of gender and sex, there is a possibility that in particular scenarios, on the topic of patient’s personal belief there could be a negative impact on a doctor whose gender identities differ from the binary of male and female.
‘For example, there are instances where patients request a doctor based on a specific sex registered at birth. While such requests may be considered positive by certain patient groups, they can result in adverse consequences for doctors who do not conform to binary gender identities.’
However, the BMA said it welcomed the draft guidance’s acknowledgement that patients have made discriminatory requests for doctors from particular ethnic groups and/or genders.
The consultation closed 11 June, with the GMC yet to publish a response.
